47 
followed in a south-easterly direction the decomposing basalt gives place to 
red ferruginous clay containing argillaceous nodules—so extremely like 
volcanic clay that it might at first sight be mistaken for such. 
The general appearance of the occurrence of basalt here leads one to 
suppose that the how had fallen over a steep escarpment of Jurassics into an 
Eocene estuary or lake, or filled up a gorge, the hounding cliffs of which, on 
the south, have since been completely removed and their places taken by 
Cainozoic sediments. 
Along the contact, between the basalt and the Jurassics, the rocks are 
grey and brown felspathic and argillaceous sandstones, dipping S. 15° 
E. at 35°, while at the junction of the next gully to the west the beds are 
massive ones of coarse sandstones of the same kind. 
Where Middle Creek crosses the northern boundary of allotment 76, the 
channel is, by virtue of the character of the rocks, greatly narrowed, and is, 
in fact, a small gorge only 50 feet wide. Among the creek pebbles none of 
basalt occurs, showing clearly that for some distance, at any rate, no basalt 
is present above the large mass in the creek lower down, and that basalt does 
not flank the bordering spurs in the vicinity on their fall into Middle Creek. 
In following down, from the northern boundary of allotment 76, the 
ridge of the spur bordering Middle Creek on the south-west, the ferruginous 
clays already mentioned are in evidence. 
Lower down the spur dense whitish siliceous quartz grits become visible, 
and, still lower, coarse white gravels. 
All these sediments greatly resemble those* near Ballar Creek, on the 
Mornington coast. 
On the opposite ridge flanking Middle Creek there occur gravelly sands, 
while a few r chains below the lignite bed, and forming a steep bank of the 
creek, is a series of white, yellow, and red gravels and sands, about 30 feet 
thick, apparently dipping S.E. at about 8° to 10°. 
A few yards below this section, and in the bed of the creek, a small out¬ 
crop may be seen of the same kind of whitish plastic clay as occurs in the 
bed of the creek higher up the stream than the lignite and near the leaf-bed. 
From its position here it appears to overlie the lignite. The beds in the bank 
seem to belong to the same series as the deposits occurring on the ridges 
flanking Middle Creek, but their relation to the clays is not clear. 
The lignite is of firm texture and good quality. Analyses made many 
years ago of two samples gave the following results :—Percentage analysis 
by the late Cosmo Newbery—Water, 16’40 ; volatile matter, 38*50 ; fixed 
carbon, 37*65 ; ash, 7*45. Mr. Newbery reportsf that it resembles the 
Crossover lignite both in appearance and composition. The other analysis 
is recorded by Mr. Jas. Stirling, name of analyst not being stated. It 
gave, per cent.—-Water, 17*85 ; volatile matter, 40*5 ; fixed carbon, 38*10 ; 
ash, 3*55. 
Neither the extent nor the thickness of the bed has ever been ascertained. 
A series of bores put down for that purpose in the Middle Creek flats would 
soon prove the beds in that locality, while an examination would be required 
of Greig’s and Mac’s Creeks, the streams on each side of Middle Creek, to see 
if any lignite is there outcropping, and if the geological features are such as 
would justify the putting down of trial bores to ascertain wdiether or not the 
bed in Middle Creek extends in either direction. There seems no reason to 
doubt that this is the case. One bore put down in Middle Creek flat would 
prove the thickness of the bed. The boring would be shallow, through easily- 
bored strata, and should be done at the lowest rate. 
* Kitson, op. cit. f Murray, op. cit., p. 173. 
